When Harry Potter Took His Final Bow...

The time has come-to face the reality. Last night the ultimate chapter of Deathly Hallows reluctantly turned it’s final page and I bid my Goodbye to Harry Potter forever. The final confrontation between The-Boy-Who-Lived and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is over. The choice has been made between what’s good and what’s right. Well, talking about the book, J.K. Rowling’s monumental, spellbinding epic, 10 years in the making, I must say it’s concluded extraordinarily with stalking revelation and precision.
The first time I took the book in my trembling hands, I could feel an unusual combination of excitement and regret. I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long. It has been around eight years ago when I finished the first book that I’ve been dying to read this particular one. And yet when I looked at it, felt it in real, I almost did not want to read it. I did not want the experience to be over for me.
Nevertheless I apparently did open the book and felt a surge of nostalgia when I saw the familiar looking page of the first chapter with even more familiar characters. Once I commenced reading and fastened my eyes to the book, I almost felt like someone had cast a spell on me. I literally couldn’t control from burying myself into it and got up for breakfast only after my mom’s diatribe. I stopped reading a few times, compelling myself to go more slowly just to savor the most awaited experience. But before I knew I was hidden in the book again and looked up only after turning the 759th page.
The whole plot is more than just a coming-of-age tale about some orphaned boy. The entire series has been quite phenomenal and I can undoubtedly say without exposing anything about Hallows that this is the most enthralling one. J.K Rowling moves quite effortlessly between Ron’s adolescent jokes and Harry’s blatant severity.
It’s about time that you realize that Harry is no longer a mere dark-haired, bemused little boy with a scar on his forehead. In this book, he faces what most grown-ups won’t even dream of confronting. Some people still think of Harry Potter as sheer children’s reading. But if you go through the pages of Deathly Hallows, expecting flying cars, revolving staircases, lip-smacking goodies and floating ghosts then you are in a position of getting a rude shock. (Read the opening chapter if you don’t believe me). This book being the most hair-raising of them all, I read most of the chapters either with my heart in my throat or sitting bolt upright on the edge of my seat. There were some scenes in the earlier books that took you on an emotional turmoil. In this book, such incidents seem to come in every alternate chapter. From his very first day at Hogwarts, when he was burdened with the responsibilities of his role as a leader and coping with expectations of being destiny’s chosen one, Harry is further pushed into the complexities of carrying out his duties and miseries of being on the brink of adulthood. No doubt Harry seems to be overwhelmed with cynicism and uncertainty in this final volume of the seven-part dictionary-sized volumes. Harry’s journey in this one prepares him towards a final showdown and also sends him back in his past to witness something he had desired since ages.
In the end to describe the book in a word, it’s exceptional! Yes, there are scenes like the opening scene, Harry and the gang flying over waters of London, Voldemort penetrating Harry’s mind and the high profile drama that unfolds in the Gringotts that had be whimpering and exclaiming loudly. And when two of Harry’s most loved professors die, when his best friend returns in time to save him, when he visits his parent’s grave, when he digs a grave for his savior, when the hatred he felt towards one of the characters since the book one vanishes in one single chapter and when he walks towards his own death with an unusual but complete acceptance, I cried.
The Six hundred and seventy five rupees I spent, my train journey at early hours of 21st morning, standing in queue to get hold of the copy and then giving up hang-outs, hour-long phone conversations and a complete detachment from the muggle-world, while constantly reminding friends and family that I have not in fact lost my mind- all worth it…!

Devashree P.S